From Doris Drucker (10 October 1943)

From Karl Polanyi
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[57] Dear Karl and Ilona,

We were delighted to get your first letter which was indeed the first sign we had of your safe arrival. - John not having informed us earlier for some reason or other. Your friends here were quite worried at the long absence of news and therefore doubly relieved to heat that you got safely to London.

We do miss you a lot, and even Sinn is only an Abglanz of his former self which reflected life with you. He came to our house the other day with his temporary masters - Honeychile - you know the mousy librarian and her husband - who live at the Brockway house. The husband tried optimistically to train Sinn as a bird dog, but it seems that he keeps on pointing in the opposite direction which, of course, is also a marvellous alibi for missed shots. Or do you think Sinn is not clever enough to put that over for long!

The children are fine, and especially Vincent has made such progress in every way, you would hardly recognize him. He is the real kind of little boy, you … […]


Text in English to type

Peter will write to you separately, as soon as he recovers from the Purple Bug, you know that comic opera disease that is endemic in Fall and Spring in the drinking water. […]

Politically and philosophically, not to mention economically I have become completely disoriented since you left. Who is there to turn to? Alas, the void can't be filled. Pater and I tried to find Ersatz for our heckling bees with you; we baited Fromm but he did not bite and excused himself at 9.30 saying he needed his beauty sleep. Our friends Feeleys have left, Helen and the children to stay with her mother while Paul is with the Marine Corps for the duration. He turned out to be quite a bayonet fighter. …the Parks … closest to us are the Fergussons, but their tendencies are more literary than political, and besides they are very busy.

[58] With the newcomers we have had little contact so far. The one, Kenneth Burke, a very esoteric literary critic who comes up only for two days a week, is a very reserved man with whom one does not get easy contact. The other one, an architect by the name of Neutra,is also not easy to get on with if one has the kind of Weltanshauung we have. According to his own description, his purpose in life is to make people happy, to give them better houses, better clothes, better food, better cultural values, i.e. improve their material existence to such an extent that they don't need supernatural forces. When you remember the reaction to Peter's Kierkegaard lecture, you can guess that he finds quite an audience here. Anyway, Neutra has a plan to rebuild Syracuse N.Y. (ausgerechnet) as a model community after the war, and his main motive in coming to Bennington was to enlist the students in the venture. Everybody in the College is to be "integrated" in it. I understand that …

I am continuing physics - there are four of us in the advanced group. […]

You made me very happy by promising to go and see my Mother and to meet my father soon. […]

You did not say anything about Kari? How is she?

Love to you both,

Letter Informations

Reference:
KPA: 47/13, 57-58